UK

The US basketball league The National Basketball Association has sold $900m of US private placements, according to market sources, some four months after the National Football League came to the market for $1.7bn.

IWG, the London-listed operator of serviced offices and co-working spaces, has issued a £350m convertible bond as it prepares to take advantage of opportunities as the UK economy reopens after lockdown.

US direct lender Owl Rock has hired its first employee in London, as it seeks to develop its business in Europe.

The UK Municipal Bonds Agency on Tuesday withdrew a planned bond sale for Warrington Borough Council as a result of the Public Works Loan Board’s decision last week to cut its lending rate by 100bp. Warrington will have to reconsider what is its best funding option.

Bytes Technology, the UK cyber security and cloud services firm, has set the price range for its IPO on the London Stock Exchange, valuing the company at up to £692m.

In calls with the UK Debt Management Office on Monday, the majority of Gilt-edged Market Makers (GEMMs) and some Gilt investors called for the UK to launch a new conventional bond maturing in either 2046 or 2051 via syndication next month.

Gore Street Energy Storage Fund, is seeking to raise up to £60m, to buy new energy storage projects, following on from fellow battery fund Gresham House that priced a deal last week.

Greencoat Renewables, the Irish wind farms fund managed by Greencoat Capital, launched a €100m equity capital raise on Thursday to free-up funds for acquisitions.

Schroder British Opportunities Trust, a new listed fund set up by Schroders to invest in undervalued UK equities, has completed its IPO on the London Stock Exchange, raising just £75m.

Santander UK has requested investors’ consent to alter the terms of four sterling covered bonds from referencing Libor to Sonia. The borrower will use the same method it used when converting its additional tier one notes for the fixed rate deals, while changing the floating rate notes will be a simpler task.

UK government borrowing is rocketing, with the country intending to borrow £485.5bn in its 2020/21 financial year. This has already pushed up its debt to GDP ratio over 100%, but the announcement of next quarter’s £92bn remit caused scarcely a ripple in the Gilts market on Wednesday. Market participants believe that any problems of debt sustainability or spiralling inflation are too distant a prospect to trouble them, writes Lewis McLellan.

The UK government said that it will not compensate holders of index-linked Gilts following the reform of the Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation, which is expected to be enacted no earlier than 2030.